Secret Caravan
by Chrifu
Summary: The town of Tipa has only two months left before their crystal's protection will fade. When Roland says that they will not send out an emergency caravan, how will Tipa's citizen's react?


Chriften the Yuke

Tipa Caravan: Year One.

In actuality, this isn't the caravan's first year, but it is mine. Tradition dictates that whenever a new writer takes over the town's Crystal Chronicle, they start again at year one. And so I'm starting at year one.

My name is Chriften. My family is Tipa's farmers. They weren't too surprised when I told them I was going to join the caravan. I could never be a farmer; I don't even know if I have the capability to set down roots. Still, the fact that I'm even on this journey now is a fact that hasn't really sunk in yet. It started about a week ago..

My father woke me up one morning. "Chriften! You need to go water the crops." He threw open my curtains, and stood over my bed, hands on his hips. "Dad, isn't it Danolo's turn today?"

"He's speaking with Roland this morning. You need to take over for him today."

That's right. As the fog of sleep quickly faded, I remembered that my twin brother was meeting Tipa's elder today. Today marked the two months until our town's crystal faded. Our caravan still hadn't sent word of it's return, and everyone was growing anxious. Luckily there was a Myrrh tree off of the nearby river that we kept just in case of emergencies like this. Danolo was going to volunteer to be a part of the emergency caravan. I didn't envy him. Monsters crawled all over that river.

I shuffled outside, shading my eyes. The crops were looking slightly wilted. It had been a hot summer, and it hadn't rained in over two weeks. Calling on the element of water, I walked slowly through the field, small jets of water streaming from my hands and into the soil. I had learned that trick from a Clavat farmer a year ago. My dad took me on a trip to the Field of Fum. He was trying to instill a farming attitude on me, or something. Instead, I focused mostly on the magics of the Clavat farmers. Either way, I could still help out the crops, so my dad wasn't too worried.

As I finished watering the last row of corn, I saw my brother angrily storming down the path from the town crystal. I hastily threw some water down, and quickly walked over to him.

"What happened?" Danolo kicked up some sand and sat down on a nearby tree stump and sighed.

"Roland is an idiot." He said. "He's going to get us all killed."

"Why? What did he say?" I couldn't quite make out his angry yells from inside his helmet so I lifted his visor and told him to try again. After he calmed down, he shook his head.

"He says that we should trust that the caravan will return in time. We're not sending an emergency caravan out. It would be irresponsible to the other caravans to have two for us."

I was shocked. I understood Roland's point of view, but if our caravan didn't return, we would die. It was a simple fact, and my urge to live kicked in.

"Well then we should just go anyway!" I had no idea where I was getting this from, and my brother looked just as confused.

"What? Disobey Roland?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "We don't need his permission. He can't decide for the rest of us. We can't just let our family die like this." Danolo looked hesitant. "Are you sure?"

I had to think about this.

Was I willing to go against town lore? Was I really so desperate to save my life and the lives of my friends and family, or was I just desperate for an adventure? But something my best friend Yum Lee told me once stuck in my mind. She was trying to convince me to sneak out of my house one night, and go to a secret party on the edge of town. She said, "You're only young once. Go for it." And that party had been entirely worth it.

I called a meeting of my best friends. Yum, Vintie, and Match. We met for lunch on the hillside, and I told them about what my brother had told me. Yum and Match were angry, but Vintie seemed doubtful. "Look," she said. "Roland is right. We can't go around collecting extra myrrh when it's possible our caravan is almost home. We can't let the other towns go without."

"But how do we know that the caravan is even still alive?" Match shouted. Match was a hot-head; he was always getting into fights.

"Match is right, we can't just sit here and wait for the crystal to fade." Yum said. She tended to be right there along with him, fighting. "We have to go and get that myrrh." Vintie stood up.

"We? Who said anything about we?" Match stood up across from her. "Who else is gonna go, Vintie? It has to be us. If anyone else was going to go, they would've already left." They both started yelling at each other, and I could see that one of them was ready to start brawling. Vintie was no match for Match strength-wise, but she was a pretty mean spell-caster and could probably take him out. I sighed. There had been tension between these two building up for weeks now, because Match just didn't like Vintie's current boyfriend.

"He's right, Vintie." She stopped and looked at me. "Besides," I said. "Could you really pass a chance like this up?" We all started laughing, and it sealed the deal. We were in.


End file.
